THERE must indeed be something very wrong with Zimbabwe sport. If it is a bad omen it must be exorcised by all means possible because it is not normal for a country to be tormented by so many relentless problems at every turn.
NewsDay Comment
The southern African country has been banned from international cricket and the country was such an embarrassment at the just ended African Cup of Nations that it was like they never actually participated in the tournament. And as if that was not enough the country faces being banned from taking part in all future Council of Southern Africa Football Association (Cosafa) events.
In all this madness of calamities we are convinced that there is indeed something the matter with how our sporting is being run. We are of the conviction that there must be some mafia running our major sporting disciplines mainly soccer and cricket because these sports are money spinners.
We have no choice, but to agree with some sentiments being expressed by those in the current Zifa board that: “There is a lot of politics at play in this whole (Cosafa ban) saga, and to be honest, we are fed up. We have to put an end to all this drama.”
These thoughts echo our own because whatever is happening today in soccer and cricket is senseless. The absurdity of all these events taking place in our major sports threatens to rub onto other sports such as it nearly happened with our netball team which was featuring for the first time at the netball world cup tournament. We suspect, despite the team having done us proud by finishing 8th, they could have ended even higher up the rankings if it were not for a rumoured tiff over allowances.
The issue of allowances all boils down to how these sports are being administered. There must be something wrong with how these sports are being run which is where the Sports and Recreation Commission should zero in and sort out issues there once and for all. We believe that there are some Mafiosi disrupting the smooth running of our sports and these must be exposed.
The corruption that has gnawed our society to the core has, undoubtedly not spared our sporting fraternity. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission should consider casting its probes into sports because what is happening there is definitely linked to corruption because our major sports have become feeding troughs for some.
